Chile, Peru And The ICJ: A Line In The Sea
Chile, Peru And The ICJ: A Line In The Sea
The Economist
Feb. 6, 2014, 8:22 PM
Here’s a grown-up way to settle a long-standing border dispute
FOR more than a century, Peru’s collective psyche has been scarred by its defeat in the War of the Pacific of 1879-83 and Chile’s subsequent stalling in implementing the terms of a peace treaty. So when Peru’s government asked the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague to redraw the maritime boundary between the two countries, many Peruvians saw a chance to heal wounded national pride.
In its long-awaited ruling on January 27th the court duly awarded Peru control of some 50,000 sq km of ocean but confirmed Chile’s hold over inshore waters rich in fish. The decision was arbitrary but broadly fair--less than Peru had hoped for, but less bad than Chile had feared. It offers both countries a chance to move on from the past, but only after what is likely to be months of wrangling over how to implement the ruling.
The status quo in the Pacific clearly favoured Chile. Although the coast swings northwestward at the border with Peru, forming an elbow, the previous maritime boundary ran due west (see map). Peru claimed that the 1952 treaty from which this boundary derived was merely a fishing agreement. In 2008 it asked the ICJ to rule on a threefold claim: that the boundary should run southwestward, equidistantly between each country’s coast; that it should start at Punta Concordia, where the land border meets the sea, rather than at the first boundary marker (known as Hito 1) located 200 metres inland and slightly farther north; and that Peru should be awarded an "external triangle" of international waters south of the parallel and over 200 miles from the Chilean coast.
The ICJ decided by ten votes to six that in practice Peru had accepted that the parallel (running due west from Hito 1, not Punta Concordia) formed the maritime boundary for the first 80 nautical miles from the coast. Beyond that point, it stipulated a new, equidistant boundary running south-west, as Peru wanted. The two countries must agree exact co-ordinates.
More:
http://www.businessinsider.com/chile-peru-and-the-icj-a-line-in-the-sea-2014-2#ixzz2sbYK9F35